A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Bioethics as bios ethikos; 
Authors: de Miranda, Luis
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Publication year: 2026
Journal: Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy
ISSN: 1386-7423
eISSN: 1572-8633
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-026-10367-x
Publication's open availability at the time of reporting: Open Access
Publication channel's open availability : Open Access publication channel
Web address : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11019-026-10367-x
Self-archived copy’s web address: https://research.utu.fi/converis/portal/detail/Publication/533834340
Self-archived copy's licence: CC BY
Self-archived copy's version: Publisher`s PDF
Drawing on a genealogical analysis of the distinction between zoē (biological life as organic functioning) and bios (a distinctively human way of life shaped by meaning, orientation, and evaluative practice), the article reconceives bioethics as bios ethikos: ethical reflection on the conditions under which forms of life become meaningful and inhabitable. It introduces the notion of the existential remainder to describe the ethically significant dimensions that persist when institutional deliberation leaves aspects of lived existence under-articulated. The article proposes a renewed structural orientation grounded in the heuristic formula T = PEWS + C. Ethical thinking (T) is distributed across four interrelated domains of lived existence: Person, Earth, Work, and Society (PEWS), while the addition of C designates the creative openness that resists full institutional codification. PEWS-oriented evaluation may be operationalised through more integrative assessment tools, while maintaining vigilance toward the irreducible horizon of existential creativity. Bioethics, thus reconceived, becomes not only the regulation of life, but reflection on whether the governance of life sustains the conditions under which life can remain meaningfully lived.
Keywords:
bioethics, Bioetiikka, eksistentialismi, ethics, etiikka
Downloadable publication This is an electronic reprint of the original article. |
Funding information in the publication:
Open access funding provided by Uppsala University. This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions grant agreement No. 101081293.